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Tobey, Mark

(Encyclopedia)Tobey, Mark, 1890–1976, American painter, b. Centerville, Wis. An avid traveler, Tobey visited China and Japan in 1934. He then developed his celebrated “white writing,” in which he attempted to...

Eggleston, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Eggleston, Edward, 1837–1902, American author, Methodist clergyman, b. Vevay, Ind., educated in frontier schools. Before 1870 he was a Bible agent, a farm worker, a circuit rider in Minnesota and In...

Hevelius, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Hevelius, Johannes yōhänˈəs hāvāˈlēo͝os [key], 1611–87, Polish astronomer, b. Danzig. From a finely equipped observatory in his house at Danzig, assisted by his wife Elizabeth, he made valu...

Bissau

(Encyclopedia)Bissau bĭsouˈ [key], town (1991 est. pop. 197,610), capital of Guinea-Bissau, a port in the Geba estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean. It is the country's largest city, major port, and administrative and...

Untermyer, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Untermyer, Samuel, 1858–1940, American lawyer and civic leader, b. Lynchburg, Va., grad. Columbia law school, 1878. He gained fame as a lawyer and took part in some of the country's most important l...

Northwest Passage

(Encyclopedia)Northwest Passage, water routes through the Arctic Archipelago, N Canada, and along the northern coast of Alaska between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Even though the explorers of the 16th cent. de...

Buenaventura

(Encyclopedia)Buenaventura bwāˌnävānto͞oˈrä [key], city (2020 est. pop. 451,000), W Colombia, a port on the Pacific ...

Still, William

(Encyclopedia)Still, William, 1821–1902, American abolitionist, b. Burlington co., N.J. After he moved to Philadelphia (1844), he began working for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society (1847) and became head of ...

theodolite

(Encyclopedia)theodolite thēŏdˈəlītˌ [key], calibrated optical instrument used to determine relative position in surveying, navigation, and meteorology. It is similar in construction to a surveyor's transit, ...

Janssen, Pierre Jules César

(Encyclopedia)Janssen, Pierre Jules César pyĕr zhül sāzärˈ zhäNsĕnˈ [key], 1824–1907, French astronomer. In 1857–58, in Peru, he worked on the determination of the magnetic equator; in the Azores (1867...